Winter 52 Week Beer Club

Its hard to believe that 2010 is nearly over, and its almost time to start thinking about Christmas.... its also time for another release of our 52 week beer club.

For this winter case we’ve put together a selection of beers which are traditionally enjoyed at this time of year. As the days become shorter and the weather turns colder our minds turn to fuller bodied, maltier, rich and warming beers, such as stouts, porters and black lagers.

There are award winning beers from Hawkshead and Fyne Ales not to mention Dark Star’s delicious ‘Espresso Stout’ which last year was named Worlds Best Speciality Beer at the World Beer Awards. We’ve included contemporary black lager style beers from two mavericks of the British brewing scene, Freedom and BrewDog and also a traditional Scottish 80 shilling beer from the excellent Williams Bros. There are also winter seasonal beers from Three Castles and York breweries, and three tasty full bodied stouts from Wensleydale, Wooden Hand and Acorn (their awesome 6% ‘Gorlovka’).

Also included in this case is a beer with a massive following in the South West which has only just been bottled for the first time; Butcombe ‘Bitter’, and if you need a break from the dark beers at some point there’s a classic pale ale ‘J.H.B’ from the very popular award winning Oakham brewery in Peterborough,.

Don’t forget this case makes a cracking beery present and will be available as an individual mixed case on the website here for just £24.99. We also have fantastic US mixed cases, mBt T shirts and some very special corked and capped Marble bottles on the way some of which will no doubt make it into my stocking on Christmas morning!

You can subscribe to the 52 week beer club here. The case above will shortly be available as an individual mixed case to find out exactly when please follow us on (@myBrewerytap) or 'like' our page on Facebook.

The full case tasting notes are below.

Craft beer in cans?

These crazy 80's designed canned beers from Maui have recently come into my possession and I've been excited all week about drinking them. The thought of decent beer in a can is a bit of a struggle for a lot of people, but after drinking some canned Oskar Blues beers earlier in the year I've been eagerly looking to get my hands on more.

Why cans? I hear you ask, well I suppose some of it is novelty factor, cans are traditionally what crap beer comes in, and as I've still had very little decent beer in can its still a real surprise to crack the top and smell a big hoppy beer or a roasted stout and even more of a surprise to pour something thick in body like a 10% imperial stout out. This is obviously a bit pathetic but my reaction is still 'wow its just like in a bottle', in fact the cans I've had so far have seemed fresher and sharper in flavour than bottles. Lets see what these two are like.

Maui Brewing Co. 'Big Swell IPA' 6.2%
I pull the ring-pull and there's a familiar crack then hiss, and then WOW the hop aroma pours out of the can toward my nose. Poured into my glass its a golden colour and hazy, not much filtration evident here. Its packed full of fruity tinned satsuma flavour and tropical, piny hops. Its has a great mouth feel which again is alien out of a can, its smooth and bitter, but not massively so. Its very drinkable and reminds me of a few other beers I've had in bottles but I can't pin it down... Vuur & Vlam?.. Southern Tier IPA maybe? Whatever, its another superb beer in a can, and all the way from Hawaii in this case.

Maui Brewing Co. 'CoCoNut Porter' 5.7%
This has a roasted, caramel sweet aroma and pours jet black with an off white head. I'm still slightly surprised that its coming out of a can. Its sweet at first but the taste then gives way to fruity chocolaty malt and toasty coconut. As you'd expect from a porter the mouth feel isn't too thick and there's a decent dry mouth cleaning carbonation to it. Moreish beer definitely.

If you think about it, canning beer makes a lot of sense compared to bottling, firstly there's much less risk of the cap seal failing and the beer oxidising, and there is no risk of the beer within being spoiled by daylight and becoming 'light struck'. They're easier to carry, easier to store and quicker to cool. I'm led to believe than aluminium is a much better recycling material than glass, so they're green too. They certainly take up a lot less space when empty (and crushed).

The principal problem with breweries canning beer is the public perception of cans, in that its previously been the packaging method of choice for industrial lager. Discerning beer people associate cans with crap beer which is often overly filtered and carbonated. I'm sure this was just the same in the US though before breweries such as 21st Amendment and Oskar Blues pioneered the canning of craft beers. It took the first taste of one beer to change my mind. There is of course another problem in that canning equipment is expensive and contract canning requires large minimum quantities making it unfeasible for many small UK craft brewers.

Personally I think its only a matter of time before we see canned craft beer in the UK and I think whoever does it first will have a great marketing angle to help the advertising of their beer. No prizes for who's been thinking about canning recently.

A massive thanks to Chris Mair, BrewDog's Scottish sales manager for getting me the beers!

Mark Dredge wrote a great blog on canned craft beer on his Pencil and Spoon blog earlier in the year here.

Raising a glass to Thornbridge(kel)...

I've been saving this bottle for a while now, Its Thornbridges (Caol Ila) barrel aged St Petersburg "The Islay Whisky Reserve" from 2006. I bought it from The Grove about a year ago and its been looking at me ever since, tempting me to indulge.

Beers like this are supposed to benefit from some aging, this bottle has had a very lazy few years and I seem to recall someone tweeting a month or two back that the beer was nearing its best, so as the clocks go forward, the nights draw in and with the weather turning filthy it feels like the right time to open it.

I'm intrigued as I pop the cap on this 4 year old beer, will there be a hiss from the carbonation? what will it smell like? how will it pour? what will the condition of the beer be like in the glass?

Only one way to find out...

Cap off: There is a decent hiss suggesting the beer has held its carbonation over the years, I don't have to get very close to the bottle top at all before I'm hit by the aroma.. a big evocative smell, heady with phenolic (TCP like) and peaty Islay aromas.

Pour: The beer pours a beautiful black, thick and smooth in appearance. Its pretty much opaque as I hold it up to the light but with cola brown edges. The condition looks good, as I tilt the glass away from me bubbles emerge from the deep black liquid, morphing through shades of brown to leave a light browny/white slowly dissipating head,

Taste: Its not quite as thick as I'm expecting but its smooth, very smooth with a skimmed milk consistency. The whisky character is dominant as the aroma precedes the taste but as the beer hits the middle of the tongue it gives way to sweet chocolaty malt, treacle, raisins, figs and an oaky woody flavour that's either phenol confusing my taste buds or coming from the casks the beer was aged in. There's also a distinct but distant saltiness.

Aftertase: Smokiness comes through now, smoke, peat, a touch of tar and loads of alcohol, not biting on the back of the throat burn, but a mellow yet spicy whisky note on the back of the palate. There's a touch of carbonation as the beer goes down, but not a bite, this beer is smooth. You are however left with an amazing lingering phenolic Islay whisky flavour, and the aforementioned oakey woodiness which gives a slight astringency on the sides of the tongue almost like you might get from a nice cigar. Its anaesthetising my palate like you might expect from a good Islay Whisky.

This beer was worth the wait. Its boozy and big, and thankfully I like Islay whisky, because if you didn't this would probably be a bit of a struggle. There is so much whisky character in this beer, its smudged all the way through it from first to last. I wonder if the whisky character has become more prevalent with age? Just as I hoped this beer was a fantastic antidote to the foul weather outside, all I was missing was a roaring hearth. It was yet another great Thornbridge beer for me and a very enjoyably and decadent drink indeed.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Kelly Ryan, Thornbridge's soon to be ex brewery manager every success in what ever he ends up doing back in his native New Zealand. I don't know Kelly particularly well and I don't pretend to be an authority but its obvious to me that he's has been an important part of the current renaissance in British brewing not only in his work as part of the innovative brewing set up at Thornbridge but also in his embracing of social media on behalf of Thornbridge. His tweets and blogs have been an informative and exciting link to Thornbridges happenings over the last year or so I've been reading. Thornbridge along with a few other breweries continue to lead the way in British brewing, and their beers, ideas, and ethos have been a big inspiration to me.

Good luck Kelly, and cheers!

You can buy Thornbridge beers here

Guest Blog #6 - Graeme Hilton on Autumn 52wbc

This is the third and final part of my review of the 52 week beer club autumn case. The last four beers are all at the darker end of the colour spectrum. Judging beer flavour from the colour is a rough and ready way to quickly work out what you want when you get to the bar, but there are some surprises in the mix. Thornbridge brewed a beer named Raven which was a darkly coloured IPA. Blind tasters said it was an IPA, but then were flabbergasted to be shown they were drinking what appeared to be a stout! Thankfully there are no such surprises in the final four bottles in the autumn case, which means I've left the rich, dark beers for when we really need them - when the nights are swiftly drawing in and we want something rich and warming while we watch rubbish television with our WAGs!


RCH Ale Mary
This is a 6.0% bottle conditioned beer that's listed as "Something Different". Pour carefully to avoid the sediment. The aroma on this is quite interesting; it's like you've opened the oven while the Christmas cake is in there. Loads of clove, ginger, cinnamon and other seasonal spices. I'll admit I didn't chill this beer before tasting, but I think this benefits from being a little warmer than usual. The flavours really come out; all plum pudding and brandy butter. This is definitely one for a cold night when you need cheered up. Also, my wife's only comment was "Oo! That's lovely", so I guess I'd better get a few in for consumption over Christmas!


Felinfoel Double Dragon
The 4.2% flagship brew of the Felinfoel Brewery in Wales. This is a deep copper colour and pours with no head. The aroma is a little nutty, as is the initial flavour. Later there are some toffee notes that come through. To be honest I was expecting more from this beer, but it seems to lack depth to me. What do you think?


Hogs Back TEA
Another 4.2% beer, but from Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey. This one is "Brewery Conditioned" which means there is no sediment. On pouring there is no head, but there is a constant stream of bubbles which slowly form a thin head round the rim of the glass. The initial taste is very smooth and there is the hint of grass from the hops in the background. The whole beer is held together with a smooth malty flavour. This is definitely a beer you could drink quite a lot of!


Meantime Chocolate
And finally, the strongest beer in the case at 6.5%. This is a small bottle, 330ml, but worth every millilitre! It pours a deep black, with practically no head, just a thin rim of bubbles around the glass. The aroma is like standing in a Belgian chocolate shop; all heady chocolate and praline. The first taste is like rich dark hot chocolate with a hint of lightly roasted coffee. This is a truly great beer.

So that's the end of my review series on the Autumn case from myBrewerytap. I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing the reviews.

A big thank you to Graeme for his great unbiased reviews of this quarters case. We'll have another guest bloggers thoughts on our Winter case as soon as its available. If you'd like a stab at reviewing and guest blogging in exchange for some free beer please get in touch - richard@mybrewerytap.com

You can sign up to the 52 Week Beer club here. The current excellent selection is also available as an individual mixed case here but don't leave it too long as they'll all be gone soon!